Originally, I was going to Tirana in Albania from Kotor in Montenegro, by direct bus by Old Town Travel from Kotor. I just found out that I left my passport at the Old Town Hostel in Kotor at the border, when the police entered the bus to check passport.
No other way than to get out of the bus at the border. Luckily I got local SIM Card and called the hostel in Kotor. He arranged that one guest who was going to Ulcinj to bring my passport and asked me to go to Ulcinj, which was at the other side of the Skoder Lake where I was stranded.
He suggested me to hitchhike... I tried, eventually one car stopped for me, but they didn't go to Ulcinj. Luckily, there was an old guy taxi, I paid EUR 50, not cheap, but it took about an hour drive to Ulcinj.
From Ulcinj, there was no direct bus to Tirana, only upto Skoder, a city in Albania near the border. From Skoder, I needed to change to another bus to Tirana.
On the bus to Skoder, I met a young Albanian, a medical student. He was studying in Skoder and was on the way back to his dorm from visiting his family in Croatia. He was originally from Skopje, but his family moved to Croatia due to his father job.
We almost talked non-stop during the trip, about Albania, about the region and so on.
He was very self confident and a smart young guy.
We arrived in the city of Skoder.
During planning my travel, I was thinking about going to this city, then going to the popular 3 day trip on boat and trekking to the Accursed Mountain, but had to give up due to no time. This trip is now in my bucket list.
Skoder looked like a very nice and pretty city.
I asked the bus driver, where to catch the bus to Tirana.
He pointed out a white small bus on the opposite of the round about.
I stopped by in a bank on one corner on the roundabout, then approached the bus.
The bus was still waiting for more passengers. I borrowed toilet from nearby cafe, then bought snack from the nearby stall.
On the bus, I met one American woman, I think in the late twentieth or early thirtieth.
She was traveling around the world, getting the travel fee by playing violin on the streets.
She was living in San Fransisco, doing flowerist.
She didn't plan to go to Albania, but when she was in Budva (Montenegro), in her hostel, the big missionary groups from US but living in Albania, by mistake taking her luggage back to Albania.
She said they couldn't send back to Montenegro, but would pay her travel to Albania to take the bag. So there she was.
One by one, other passengers got off the bus.
Only the American girl, and a local mother and daughter were in the car with me.
The local mother was a young and beautiful lady.
She was friendly, but she couldn't speak English, she only spoke Italian and Spanish (I was wondering why!). Her daughter was cute.
To add another bad luck on that day, our furgon got flat tire.
The driver, helped by other male passengers who sat in the front seat, changed the tire.
After continuing driving a while, a new passenger, a strange but funny lady got in.
I remember her name was Maria, or Mariana, somehow she spoke fluent French, but not English.
She was a bit "kimochi warui" （in Japanese） kind of woman.
She opened a box full of fried noodle, and started eating with her hand.
She throw down the shell on the car floor, and she cleaned her oily hand after eating using her shirt.
The pretty lady with the daughter looked at me in her back, showing a "yaks" face :)
But Mariana was funny. She talked a lot, and local passengers in the car were laughing hearing her story.
Finally we arrived in Tirana, it was about 21:30.
The American girl and Mariana got off with me.
It was true what the Ulcinj hostel lady told me, there was no bus terminal in Albania.
We got off on the street, I used my offline Google Map to show direction to my hostel.
Funnily, Mariana gave the American lady, the mineral water bottle she already drank half.
The American lady was being polite accepting the bottle, but no way she would ever drink the water from that bottle :)
While we were walking towards the main square, she was desperate finding a trash box to get off the bottle, she said it smelled bad, but for a while we couldn't see any trash box :)
Since she had to use internet to find her hotel, she said she booked for a euro for a night, though she believed it was a mistake, so we separated at a cafe, and I continued walking to my hostel.
To add another bad luck to that day, the rain started pouring, a heavy and windy one.
Shading down the Opera House in the main square, I put on my raincoat, and continued walking finding my hostel.
Arriving at the hostel, was lucky the hostel was nice and the staff was superb, but unlucky I couldn't get lower bunk bed.
No other way than to get out of the bus at the border. Luckily I got local SIM Card and called the hostel in Kotor. He arranged that one guest who was going to Ulcinj to bring my passport and asked me to go to Ulcinj, which was at the other side of the Skoder Lake where I was stranded.
He suggested me to hitchhike... I tried, eventually one car stopped for me, but they didn't go to Ulcinj. Luckily, there was an old guy taxi, I paid EUR 50, not cheap, but it took about an hour drive to Ulcinj.
From Ulcinj, there was no direct bus to Tirana, only upto Skoder, a city in Albania near the border. From Skoder, I needed to change to another bus to Tirana.
On the bus to Skoder, I met a young Albanian, a medical student. He was studying in Skoder and was on the way back to his dorm from visiting his family in Croatia. He was originally from Skopje, but his family moved to Croatia due to his father job.
We almost talked non-stop during the trip, about Albania, about the region and so on.
He was very self confident and a smart young guy.
We arrived in the city of Skoder.
During planning my travel, I was thinking about going to this city, then going to the popular 3 day trip on boat and trekking to the Accursed Mountain, but had to give up due to no time. This trip is now in my bucket list.
Skoder looked like a very nice and pretty city.
I asked the bus driver, where to catch the bus to Tirana.
He pointed out a white small bus on the opposite of the round about.
I stopped by in a bank on one corner on the roundabout, then approached the bus.
The bus was still waiting for more passengers. I borrowed toilet from nearby cafe, then bought snack from the nearby stall.
On the bus, I met one American woman, I think in the late twentieth or early thirtieth.
She was traveling around the world, getting the travel fee by playing violin on the streets.
She was living in San Fransisco, doing flowerist.
She didn't plan to go to Albania, but when she was in Budva (Montenegro), in her hostel, the big missionary groups from US but living in Albania, by mistake taking her luggage back to Albania.
She said they couldn't send back to Montenegro, but would pay her travel to Albania to take the bag. So there she was.
One by one, other passengers got off the bus.
Only the American girl, and a local mother and daughter were in the car with me.
The local mother was a young and beautiful lady.
She was friendly, but she couldn't speak English, she only spoke Italian and Spanish (I was wondering why!). Her daughter was cute.
To add another bad luck on that day, our furgon got flat tire.
The driver, helped by other male passengers who sat in the front seat, changed the tire.
After continuing driving a while, a new passenger, a strange but funny lady got in.
I remember her name was Maria, or Mariana, somehow she spoke fluent French, but not English.
She was a bit "kimochi warui" （in Japanese） kind of woman.
She opened a box full of fried noodle, and started eating with her hand.
She throw down the shell on the car floor, and she cleaned her oily hand after eating using her shirt.
The pretty lady with the daughter looked at me in her back, showing a "yaks" face :)
But Mariana was funny. She talked a lot, and local passengers in the car were laughing hearing her story.
Finally we arrived in Tirana, it was about 21:30.
The American girl and Mariana got off with me.
It was true what the Ulcinj hostel lady told me, there was no bus terminal in Albania.
We got off on the street, I used my offline Google Map to show direction to my hostel.
Funnily, Mariana gave the American lady, the mineral water bottle she already drank half.
The American lady was being polite accepting the bottle, but no way she would ever drink the water from that bottle :)
While we were walking towards the main square, she was desperate finding a trash box to get off the bottle, she said it smelled bad, but for a while we couldn't see any trash box :)
Since she had to use internet to find her hotel, she said she booked for a euro for a night, though she believed it was a mistake, so we separated at a cafe, and I continued walking to my hostel.
To add another bad luck to that day, the rain started pouring, a heavy and windy one.
Shading down the Opera House in the main square, I put on my raincoat, and continued walking finding my hostel.
Arriving at the hostel, was lucky the hostel was nice and the staff was superb, but unlucky I couldn't get lower bunk bed.
